I have a lot of Sd card and usually nowadays find it difficult to either formate or manage SD cards to write a new image for RaspberryPi. Anyone else also struggle to do that? Do you have any recommendations for tools?

Problems might be very possible with poor quality (or fake capacity) SD cards. I only purchase good brands from a reputable seller and have had 100% success forever. There's no detail so perhaps you're following incorrect instructions or maybe you have a faulty download, or downloading from a strange source.

Personally I still use an earlier piece of software called Win32DiskImager because it works fine for me. If you're struggling, it is best to stick to the official raspberrypi.org instructions to the letter, since tens of thousands of people will have followed those instructions, and if there was an issue with their instructions they ought to know about it very quickly.

I have 3 SD cards, two are from Samsung and one Sandisk. As I posted in one of my road test reviews about RPI last year I will again say it.

I also have genuine downloads from the official website etc so that should not be a problem.

In fact, the instructions at Raspberrypi's website are always good and easy to follow, As I am using Linux could be that I am facing hard times with sd cards. FYI, I have tried belenaetcher, RPI official imager, Diskparted, linux's inbuilt tools to formate the sd cards, but none of them worked properly, Yes Unfortunetely. I will give a try to dd tool now.

Unfortunately, you're going to find it harder to get as much best practice information simply because you're using a very uncommon desktop OS. Most of the Pi setup related information out there will be assuming Windows or Mac.

The raspberrypi.org instructions are for children, and it is really unexpected for them to be running Linux on a PC, let alone most adults.

I think if you're doing something advanced like running Linux on your desktop then you have to be prepared to dig deeper, and debug a little harder.

Your issue could be anything - could even be a driver issue.

Raspberrypi.org actually do have information for Ubuntu - they picked one of the more popular Linux distributions for beginners.

I cannot help you much further because I don't have much experience with desktop related issues such as SD card imaging.

Once you have figured it out, please write it up in a blog post to help other Linux users.

More generally, if you're having Linux issues, you should also try to join a Linux user group.. people have plenty of advice to share, and there are sometimes Linux virtual classes.

Download the Raspbian image from raspberrypi.org, you then have to extract the image from the archive because it is usually in a .zip file, this means you'll usually have to install 'unzip' using your package manager

Actually dd can be as fast as any other tool - the problem is by default, it copies using a block size that is much too small (probably just 512 bytes) adding a lot of CPU overhead. Adding a larger block size argument will make things faster, if not equally fast, as most other solutions - e.g. "bs=8M" for an 8MByte block size. So instead of using 'dd if=image.img of=/dev/sdx', you would use 'dd if=image.img of=/dev/sdx bs=8M'. Try it yourself and see the difference! It is by far the easiest way to do things on Linux, but be doubly sure you have the right devices or you could end up with data destroyer instead ... the other nickname for dd. Best to try fdisk -l to work out what's what.

A big problem with image management is that almost every brand of SD card has a different number of blocks for a different capacity size. It is hence not easily possible to image a Sandisk 32GB card and write it to a Samsung 32GB card, at least without some intervention. If you check fdisk's output and the size of the destination device is equal to or larger than the image file, you don't need to do anything. But if it's the other way around, even by a few kB, you will need to take some action. The easiest way to deal with this issue is to edit the image file by mounting it as a loopback device, resizing the main partition smaller (ideally, as small as possible to give you the widest latitude to image to other cards, but with a margin to allow it to boot), truncating the image file, writing it to your SD card, booting up and resizing the partition to fill the card again (e.g. via sudo raspi-config).

You will find that running Linux is actually quite advantageous in this regard, because these kinds of things can be more easily accomplished under Linux than Windows (for example).

One of the first was to try Gparted and unmount the partition and formate to specific type of partition. Which was success but soon after the last /boot and /sdcardcontent come back.

Then I tried Linux's inbuilt Disk tool to formate following one of the above recomendation where I deleted and created the new partions but ssoon again both of my existing partitions came back.

Latter tried fdisk thing as lsst post mentions which also did not work.

I had also tried DD utility to formate and burn the image to the SD card. Still I will try my best to repair the card, but it seems that there could be a damage in it. @sean conway FYI, I have tried that.

Low-quality cards and those which have been used too much can sometimes go into a quasi "read-only" mode. Some will throw write errors while others will pretend to write, but the data and changes are lost. Some readers may even report the card as "write protected". I've encountered this quite frequently on even genuine Sandisk Ultra cards after a year of use - they just don't last. I've had better luck with most other brands. Try using a different / higher quality card.

Unfortunate the MS Windows utility didn't resolve your issue. I had two unservicable SD cards when BB pointed out the utility. One card worked and one card did not after using the utility.

The utility holds some ability to resolve SD card problems what they are and how they are created is a mystery to me. The failed SD card sits on my computer desk, with the hope I one day find a routine to restore it. The chances are slim:( At some point I will finish my grieving and throw the card into the garbage.

I have a lot of Sd card and usually nowadays find it difficult to either formate or manage SD cards to write a new image for RaspberryPi. Anyone else also struggle to do that? Do you have any recommendations for tools?